Police investigating drowning death of infant girl

By Mark D. Wilson :
June 3, 2014
: Updated: June 4, 2014 1:14pm

RubI Duncan, 11-months-old, died Monday night she was found face-down in a bathtub at a Northeast Side apartment.

Photo By Courtesy photo.

RubI Duncan, 11-months-old, died Monday night she was found face-down in a bathtub at a Northeast Side apartment.

Photo By Courtesy photo.

RubI Duncan, 11-months-old, died Monday night she was found face-down in a bathtub at a Northeast Side apartment.

SAN ANTONIO — Rubi Duncan was 10 days shy of her first birthday when she drowned Monday evening in a bathtub at her family's Northeast Side apartment, police said Tuesday as details of the case began to emerge.

A man at The Meadows at Bentley Drive apartment complex near Walzem Road told police he had stepped out of the bathroom for a minute just before 7 p.m. He found Rubi face down in the tub when he returned, he said.

Rubi was hospitalized and later pronounced dead. The San Antonio Police Department continues to investigate.

Romeo Alexander Duncan, 21, the girl's father, was arrested at the scene on a charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. SAPD was unable to confirm Tuesday what role, if any, the alleged drugs played in the incident.

Neighbors said they remembered a young couple moving into the apartment less than a month ago, bringing with them a baby girl. Those who spoke with the Express-News said they did not know the family well.

“It just doesn't make sense,” said Princess Cisneros, 24, who lives next door. “How does an 11-month-old drown in a tub and why was she left alone?”

The couple would have friends over often, but not big parties, Cisneros said.

“I heard a lot of commotion all the time, but I figured they were moving stuff around, putting stuff up,” Cisneros said. “They just moved in.”

Gloria Martinez, another neighbor, said she had never seen the baby but she and the woman would exchange greetings as the woman was leaving for work. Martinez said she had the impression the woman worked a lot.

For more on this story, visit ExpressNews.com or read the Wednesday print edition of the San Antonio Express-News.